To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than seeing them as adults-in-the-making. Thus, what we ask them to do should have "horizontal relevance,"...It ought to be "meaningful to them at the time" — for example, related to something that could happen on the way home from school. Mere "vertical relevance" isn't enough: there's a reason to be concerned if the only justification for learning something is that students will need to know it later — for example, as part of the following year's curriculum.
-Alfie Kohn (1999)
The Schools Our Children Deserve
This is a very interesting quote and is the complete opposite of everything I do every single day! Lol. However, it makes sense. A lot of times, well, all the time, we place pressure on children to do and understand things that they won't or can't understand right now. I will take this quote to heart and see how my teachings can be more relevant "right now." Thank you!
ReplyDeleteChenieka, thank you for sharing this quote. I agree that with children things need to have direct and relevant meaning for it to make sense to them. However, sometimes we forget what makes sense to us but we still try to explain it anyway. I really like the term of horizontal relevance. I have never heard it before.
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